An employee of a Pole Emploi, France’s employment agency, giving information to a jobseeker in Dijon, central-eastern France (file). European stock markets fell and the euro dropped against the dollar yesterday as traders digested record high eurozone unemployment data.
AFP/London
European stock markets fell and the euro dropped against the dollar yesterday as traders digested record high eurozone unemployment data following weak US numbers, analysts said.
London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares shed 1.11% to 6,583.09 points. Frankfurt’s Dax 30 index fell 0.61% to 8,348.84 points, while in Paris the Cac 40 dropped 1.19% to 3,948.59 points.
Madrid gave up 1.37% and Milan slumped 0.79%.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro slipped to $1.2965 from $1.3043 late in New York on Thursday.
The dollar gained to ¥100.95 from ¥100.74 on Thursday.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold inched down to $1,394.50 an ounce from $1,413.50 on Thursday.
The drop in European share prices “is in part associated with the eurozone unemployment data”, said Joshua Mahony, research analyst at Alpari traders.
“On the whole this portrays a region which continues to worsen and is unlikely to improve anytime soon,” he added.
The eurozone unemployment rate hit a fresh record high level of 12.2% in April, with 19.2mn people on the dole as recession continued to sap the economy.
The Eurostat data agency said yesterday that in the 12 months to April, a total 1.6mn people lost their jobs in the 17-nation eurozone.
Meanwhile, inflation across the single currency bloc rose to 1.4% in May from 1.2% in April, the first time for months that the reading has increased, separate official data showed yesterday.
Despite the upturn, the inflation rate remained well below the European Central Bank’s target of just below 2.0% for a fourth month running.
“European markets have taken a leg lower... as traders look to scale back risk heading into the month’s end, with the central bank policy picture still unclear,” Matt Basi, head of UK sales trading at CMC Markets, said yesterday.
US stocks were mixed in early trade Friday amid a flurry of indicators, with a slowdown in consumer spending partly offset by a surge in the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index.
In midday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.19%, the broad-based S&P 500 was virtually unchanged, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 0.16%.
Stocks remained volatile after the Commerce Department reported that consumer spending dropped by 0.2% last month, the first monthly fall since May 2012 and a signal that growth slowed at the beginning of the second quarter.
Offsetting that was a jump in the Chicago area to 58.7, its highest since March 2012, and the Michigan confidence barometer, which rose to a better-than-expected 83.7.
